According to the latest findings, there were eyewitnesses to the act of Idar-Oberstein. Meanwhile, the AfD has denied complicity in the radicalization of “lateral thinkers”.
Idar-Oberstein – The fatal shot at a cashier in a gas station in Idar-Oberstein was observed by eyewitnesses. This was announced by the public prosecutor in Bad Kreuznach on Thursday at the request of the German Press Agency.
The authority did not want to provide any further information about the witnesses who were on site for the act of a 49-year-old on Saturday evening. The investigation into the fatal attack, which is said to have been triggered in the dispute over the wearing of a corona mask, is ongoing. The SWR had previously reported on the witnesses.
The 49-year-old German is accused of having shot the 20-year-old cashier in the head at the gas station. The young man had previously advised him of the mask requirement. After his arrest, the perpetrator said, according to investigators, that he rejects the corona measures. The German, previously unknown to the police, is in custody on suspicion of murder. The act caused great horror and sympathy nationwide.
The public prosecutor expects investigations to take weeks. “We have to get a clear picture of ourselves now,” Chief Public Prosecutor Kai Fuhrmann said earlier. This also included investigations into the origin of the murder weapon and the other weapons that had been seized from the man. He owned them illegally.
Police are also currently reviewing the perpetrator’s social media activities. A lot of information was received, said a spokesman for the Trier police headquarters. After joint research by the news magazine “Der Spiegel” and the think tank CeMAS, which specializes in conspiracy ideologies, the alleged shooter was already noticed two years ago on a Twitter profile with nebulous fantasies of violence.
Meanwhile, AfD boss Jörg Meuthen rejected allegations in an interview with the ARD capital studio that the alleged perpetrator could be linked to his party. Meuthen called it “absurd” to want to establish a connection between the AfD and the act of violence in Idar-Oberstein: “It is so recognizably constructed, I don’t think you can get away with it,” Meuthen said. You have to deal with the perpetrator with a “crazy lunatic”.
Union Chancellor candidate Armin Laschet (CDU) had accused “lateral thinkers” and the AfD of stirring up hatred. “The AfD must disappear from German parliaments,” he said on Wednesday evening in Rottenburg am Neckar in Baden-Württemberg. “The hatred that the AfD has carried in German parliaments, the hatred that it articulates in the German Bundestag in every session – against minorities, with resentment – we oppose that.” Spread the Internet, said Laschet. “Hatred on the net is followed by the bad deed in the end.” That was what happened in Idar-Oberstein, for example, where a young man was murdered just because he reminded them of the obligation to wear a mask.
The domestic political spokesman for the FDP parliamentary group, Konstantin Kuhle, told the editorial network Germany (RND): “The AfD is the top agent of political radicalization in Germany.” By right-wing extremists spreading their confused dictatorship allegations during the corona pandemic, they are deceiving Joint responsibility for the radicalization of certain population groups, which also includes the perpetrator from Idar-Oberstein.
The domestic political spokeswoman for the SPD parliamentary group, Ute Vogt, also accuses the AfD. “Since entering the German Bundestag, the AfD has made a significant contribution to the enormous increase in hatred and agitation on the streets and in social media,” she told the RND. The domestic political spokesman for the CDU parliamentary group in the Bundestag, Mathias Middelberg, told the RND: “To look for the reasons for this horrific act solely with the AfD is too easy.” And he further emphasized: “But of course the AfD carries with its targeted Provocations contribute to an increasing polarization of our society. “
The co-chairman of the SPD, Norbert Walter-Borjans, has called for early and decisive action from the authorities. “If there are signs that something is about to happen that really leads to a hateful argument, then the state has to react,” said Walter-Borjans in the “early start” of RTL and ntv.
The specialist office for strengthening those affected and developing democracy in Rhineland-Palatinate evaluates the act as “a suspected case of right-wing violence”. Statements made by the 49-year-old before and after the crime that have become known to date refer to “resistance rhetoric” “as it is widespread in right-wing extremist and conspiracy-ideological milieus”, said the specialist unit m * Power in, which was founded in 2017 to provide advice to those affected by right-wing extremist violence Koblenz with. dpa
